French Literature Reviews - 2026

Annick Le Scoëzec Masson, Ramon del Valle-Inclan et la sensibilité fin de siècle
Comparative and World Literature

Review published in Acta Fabula: “Ramon Valle-Inclan: A Dark Star in the Decadentist Constellation” by Morgan Leray

Annick Le Scoëzec Masson
RAMON DEL VALLE-INCLAN AND "FIN DE SIÈCLE" SENSIBILITY
L'Harmattan, coll. "Critiques littéraires"
ISBN: 2-7384-9865-5 • December 2000 • 386 pages

A writer of Galician origin, Ramon del Valle-Inclan (1866–1936) spanned a pivotal era at the turn of the century. His work, rooted in Romanticism and open to the avant-gardes, takes on a distinct significance when examined within the European context of the fin de siècle. As a member of目 the critical Generation of 1898 (alongside Pío Baroja, Miguel de Unamuno, and Antonio Machado), Valle-Inclan shared their sobering conclusions regarding the National Disaster...

The period around 1900 witnessed a profound aesthetic reassessment across Europe, as artists and writers grappled with anxieties regarding modernity, decadence, and the decline of established traditions. Within Hispanic letters, this moment of transition found expression in the works of the Generation of 1898, a group of intellectuals responding to deep-seated national and cultural crises. Authors from this milieu often sought new formal vocabularies, bridging nineteenth-century romantic legacies with the emerging experimental impulses that would eventually lead toward twentieth-century avant-gardes.

Annick Le Scoëzec Masson examines the trajectory of Ramon del Valle-Inclan by situating his writing within this broader continental framework of fin de siècle sensibilities. Readers interested in Hispanic literary history and turn-of-the-century European aesthetics may find this volume a relevant exploration of how regional origins and cosmopolitan currents intersected in a major author's development.